


Nightlight

by Mintlia



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Minor Character Death, Peter Parker Gets a Hug, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark Trying His Best
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-27
Updated: 2018-05-27
Packaged: 2019-05-14 10:09:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14767584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mintlia/pseuds/Mintlia
Summary: One night at the compound Peter learns about space and grief and finds comfort where he didn’t expect it.Like in his ceiling, and Tony Stark.





	Nightlight

**Author's Note:**

> This is set between Spiderman Homecoming and Avangers Infinity War, after Tony gets over his rejection and starts inviting the kid over, because he built him a room, dammit. 
> 
> While Peter and Tony stay safe and sound in this story, they do talk about death and grieving. If you don't feel like delving into that today, this has been your warning.

There is a knock on Peter’s door.

“You decent?”

“Hgghg,” said Peter as nearly impales himself on his toothbrush.

Tony Stark never came to his palace of a room before except for the first time ever when Peter visited the compound when he casually opened the door, said: “This is your place, don’t leave your socks on the floor,” and then left immediately and was impossible to find for the next several hours while Peter got the worst of his excitement out of his system.

And now he is knocking on Peter’s door which is surprisingly considerate for a man who is also literally tracking and videotaping his every move.

“Come in!” Peter shouts when he gets the tooth brushing situation under control.

When he comes out of the bathroom Tony is lying on his couch frowning intently on his ceiling.

“Mm, Mr. Stark?”

“Hey kiddo,” Tony gives him a faint smile and sits up. He looks tired and there’s something in his eyes Peter can’t quite decipher. “Friday tells me you still haven’t used the Nightlight protocol?”

Peter has an uncomfortable feeling that it’s not the only thing Friday might have told Tony. He woke up yesterday from a nightmare, which wasn’t really a nightmare. Uncle Ben was there. _You are dead_ , Peter thought but Ben laughed and opened his arms and he was _warm_ , and he couldn’t be dead if he was warm, right? The nightmare was waking up and realizing –

“The what now?”

Tony smirks and pats the couch beside where he’s sitting.

“Get ready to have your mind blown,” he says, turns the light off and looks up, so Peter also looks up, and his ceiling isn’t there anymore.

Instead, it’s the night sky but somehow there are more stars than Peter has ever seen. They look bright and real and Peter can’t see his ceiling at all, it’s like –

“Oh my God, my room has a frigging enchanted ceiling! Like the Great Hall!” Peter whispers in awe. “Mr. Stark, this is the coolest thing ever!”

“You know that it can’t hear us right?” Tony sounds amused. “Anyway, this is the standard setting, you can also – “he waves his hand, “go back in time. Want to see what the sky looked like when the dinosaurs walked the Earth?”

“Oh, wow, wow.” For some reason Peter can’t not whisper as the stars blur and then settle into an unfamiliar sky.

“There’s also a detail mode,” Tony says and then cackles with laughter when Peter screams as Jupiter flies straight into his face and fills up the room.

They lie there for a while. Peter figures out he can also see the skies from different places on Earth and they’re looking at the sky from Sydney, Australia, when Tony says:

“I used to hate it. The sky.” Peter whips his head round to look at Tony who is studying the ceiling. “After New York – I – sometimes it freaked me out. I felt like was back there, in the wormhole, you know?”

He looks at Peter now and his eyes are serious and Peter nods, solemn, even though he really doesn’t know what it’s like to almost die in space. “Did building this help?” he asks.

Tony smiles. “Kind of, yeah.”

“What was up with you today, Pete?” Tony asks.

It comes out of a blue and normally Peter’s first instinct would be to pretend he doesn’t know what Tony’s talking about but Tony has just shared something pretty big with him and Peter doesn’t want to make him feel he doesn’t trust him, doesn’t want to break this fragile bubble of intimacy that grew around them in this room filled by starlight, doesn’t want to disappoint the man, not ever again.

He also doesn’t know what to say, because there is nothing wrong, really, nothing fixable. Doesn’t know how to explain that sometimes he still misses his uncle so much it feels like a black hole in his heart.

Evidently, he takes too long deciding because Tony pokes his side with his finger.

“C’mon, you were nowhere near your normal energizer bunny levels today. Something’s bothering you. I wanna know.”

Peter swallows, heart pounding, and hears himself say: “Uncle Ben took me stargazing once,” and why the fuck would he open with that, he sounds like a child. He feels his cheeks heat up.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, we went on a road trip. I just – there’s nothing wrong Mr. Stark, you don’t need to –“ he takes a deep breath and carefully doesn’t look at Tony.“I just – sometimes I just miss him, _so much_.”

His voice wobbles at the last word and he could kick himself, because Tony didn’t ask for this, he should be able to control this, it’s been so long. He blinks furiously.

“I’m sorry, I- this is stupid, it’s been over two years.”

“ _Stupid_?”

Tony sounds incredulous and Peter flinches because Tony rarely snaps at him anymore and feeling as raw as he does now…

“Hey, no, I didn’t mean it like that,” Tony looks pinches the bridge of his nose and when he speaks again his voice is carefully even. “Kid, two years is no time at all. Might as well have happened yesterday.”

Peter meets his eyes. What?

“My parents… you probably know, it’s public record.” Tony lifts his eyebrows and Peter nods. “It’s been over twenty years. Do you think I don’t still miss my mom sometimes? Because you’d be wrong.”

Oh. This actually does make Peter feel better. He’s pretty sure he’ll still miss Uncle Ben in twenty years. He’s pretty sure he’s never going to stop missing him.

“Do you still dream about her?” he asks quietly, wondering at his own nerve but his question doesn’t faze Tony at all.

“Sometimes, yeah. I take it you dream about your uncle?”

Peter nods. His palms are dry and his eyes are wet.

“I used to dream about how he died every night,” he admits. His voice doesn’t sound like his own voice, strangled with emotions. “And sometimes I have dreams where – where he’s alive, he never died or –, or he came back and I’m so _happy_ and then –“

And Peter can’t continue but Tony seems to get it.

He claps his shoulder.

“It’s a rough life kid. God knows I’m not a shining example of how to deal with grief, I was a mess for years so I don’t know what I’m doing here, but – it will get easier, alright? It’s not going to go away, but it is going to get easier.”

Peter nods, because that’s what internet said as well, but he still feels like he’s sinking.

Tony touches his cheek and gets him to look at him.

“Listen up kid, because I’m burning up a month’s worth of emotional energy here. You’ll be fine, alright? You know how I know that?”

Peter shakes his head and tries to stop his hands from shaking as well. He’s not going to break down in front of Ironman. He’d never live that down.

“Because you’re such a good kid,” Tony’s voice is firm, not allowing any argument. “You’re brave, you’re strong, you’re good, and it’s genuinely kind of amazing given the shit you’ve been through. Your uncle would be proud of you, I promise.”

And Peter hasn’t given his face a permission to crumble but it does and the tears he’s been holding in are finally spilling. He brings his hands to his face and tries to not sob, horrified.

But then Tony puts an arm around him and gathers him to his chest like he does this every day and Peter can’t fight it anymore. He whines into his shirt and tries to sob as quietly as he can. Tony runs one hand down his back and through his hair, which has no right being as comforting as it is, and he’s suddenly so grateful for him, for the way Tony sees something in him that he can’t see himself, for the way he always tries to be there for him, and it just makes him sob harder.

“Hey, no no, it’s alright, it’s fine,” Tony murmurs and holds him tighter, holds him steady until Peter gets his breathing under control.

Once he does, he tries to pull away, embarrassed, and Tony lets him.

“This is good practice. Superheroing actually involves way more crying than is advertised. Nice of you to clock some hours in early.”

Peter smiles weakly. True to his word, Tony seems to have seems have spent his quota on emotional conversation but he doesn’t look uncomfortable and so Peter doesn’t feel nowhere as mortified as he probably should.

“Thank you,” he manages to say.

“Yeah,” says Tony.

They lie there, quiet, for a while. Peter blinks at the Milky Way until it's no longer blurry and tries to finds some words but Tony breaks the silence first.

“Anyway, I came here to ask if you think Nightlight is ready for commercial production? I’m thinking Harry Potter nerds like you might like it. You can be my test guy.”

Peter looks up at the night sky that isn’t really there and smiles.

“I’ll be your test guy. What’s the salary?”

“What’s the salary? “ Tony scoffs, mock outraged. “You little shit, I clothe you, I feed you – “

“I thought I was brave and strong and good,” Peter laughs and he feels young and light and better than he has in ages when Mr. Stark hits his head with a pillow.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know shit about technology so it might as well be magic.
> 
> Comments are much appreciated.


End file.
